The “thin-client” network continues to gain wider acceptance among users. Under the thin client architecture, the thin client performs minimal processing, and stores little or no data. The thin client is employed to provide a graphical user interface and to display data and information generated by the server. The interface communicably couples the thin client to the server. The server provides the processing power and data storage that is required by the respective thin client. A user may log onto any thin client machine connected to the server and the server, which may store the applications software and the user's data and desktop, provides the user with their customary operating environment associated with that user. The server performs all the data processing and data storage functions. The thin client provides only the user interfaces to display graphics, text, and data, and to receive user input data. The ability of a user to log onto any one of a plurality of thin clients and obtain access to his usual desktop and computational configuration is referred to as “hot desking.”
A thin client network architecture offers several advantages over traditional client-server network architectures. One advantage of the thin client network is that a user can access their desktop features including their personal software, data, and tools from the server from any thin-client machine in the network. Flexibility is therefore afforded, since multiple users may utilize a single thin-client machine at different times during the day depending on individual schedules, work hours and needs. In addition, a user may select a different thin client machine to use each day, depending on the availability of the machines. This flexibility may result in better asset management, a higher availability of machines, and a concomitant increase in productivity and efficiency of the users. From the end user perspective the experience is no different from having their own system. However system administrators now have to maintain a tiny fraction of the number of systems, keeping costs down.
Thin client systems provide other benefits to the user. The working session now resides in a data center on a very reliable machine. The data can be backed up regularly without any involvement on the part of the user. Another bonus is that user's sessions can be identified by a smart chip (often on their ID badge) and they can access their session by inserting their badge into any thin client. Alternatively, a user may access the thin client through a password or any other suitable access means. This enables paradigms such as “hot-desking,” since users can sit down at any desk, insert their badge and carry on working where they left off.
However, while a session is portable under the thin client architecture, most office phone systems fail to provide anything remotely similar. Thus, when a user sits at a desk that is not his own, the user will have to set up forwarding to have phone calls forwarded to him. The set up process usually requires the user to navigate through a menu to set up the forwarding information. If the user should move to a different location this set up process must be repeated. Additionally, with caller identification being ubiquitous, since the user is not at his own phone number, when the user makes a phone call the receiving party would not recognize the phone number for the incoming call.
As a result there is a need to enable a user to integrate telephony features into the thin client architecture.